Sunday, May 13, 2012

Pear and raspberry muffins, for Mother's Day

I like Mother's Day. To me, it has a relaxed yet special feel and is often a precursor to a books and coffee outing with my Mum. It is also an excuse to bake. And, of course, it is a day for spending with family.

Today, we had lunch at my parent's house with my family plus Mr Bite's Mum. A barbecue with plenty of vegetarian options, with weather that was just right for eating outdoors. Perfect.

My contributions to the day were mostly things I had made before, or bought, largely due to being away for most of last week and not being organised enough to plan ahead prior to that! In the end, it was an easy to prepare list:


My Dad cooked chicken on the barbecue and this was rounded out by potatoes, sweet potatoes, and some bread and dips.

I did, however, make one new thing. As the title of this post would suggest, that came in the form of pear and raspberry muffins. Interestingly, I have never baked with pears before, unless I have done so and forgotten (entirely possible). In the end, this leap into something unfamiliar slightly backfired on me, but I suppose that is part of what baking is. Experimentation can't always go to plan!



Why backfired? Well, I didn't like these much. They seemed to be well received by others, and as my brother ate two I don't think it was just politeness...unless he was very hungry. I can't quite put my finger on what was wrong, but I found the texture to be not quite right, and the flavours almost bland. I make muffins so often that I may be quite demanding in my standards, but these were definitely not up to them.


This may have been, in part, due to the use of quite thick cupcake liners. I have only used these once before and I have found them to affect the cooking time, and also make it harder to judge when things are cooked. These were cooked, but might have been slightly underdone. The pears also changed the texture of the muffins and I think there needed to be more 'grit' in the batter in order to counter the softness of the pear.   Chia seeds, for example, or nuts. I'm not sure why this is, given I make apple muffins all the time with no problem, but the pears seemed to give quite different results to apple.


As for the flavour, I don't really know what would have improved it. Don't get me wrong, it was nice enough - but that was all, nothing exciting. More vanilla might have helped, or using almond meal and turning these into friands. Making a raspberry glaze for the top would have been another option, or adding yoghurt to the mix.

I do think that these have potential and so am posting the recipe here, but would encourage experimentation if anyone decides to try an offshoot!

Pear and raspberry muffins
Adapted from the 'peary berry muffins' in Kris Holechek's 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes
Vegan
Makes 12 muffins

A bit of a work in progress...


Ingredients
2 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond)
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 medium - large pears, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen raspberries

Method
Preheat the oven to 200'C and prepare a 12 pan muffin tray.

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in a large bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients (milk, vinegar, vanilla, oil and apple sauce) in a medium bowl. Add to the dry ingredients and mix through to combine.

Add the pear and raspberries and mix through until just combined.

Divide between 12 muffin pans and bake for 28 - 32 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out clean (mine were 30 minutes, but the heavy cupcake liners but have influenced things). Allow to cool slightly before removing from the pan.

Do you bake with pears regularly, and if so, is there anything I should know about how they behave or what it goes well with?

And happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there!

26 comments:

  1. That is an impressive list of dishes you made - I wanted to make something savoury for our lunch today but circumstances were against me and cake was easier to make ahead.

    I have baked with pear a few times but also am not as keen on it as other fruit in baking. The best result I have had with baking with pears is a cake I made (and blogged) when I was first blogging which had lots of spices (which might help your muffins) and had the pears slices arranged on top of the cake and were very impressive.

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    1. I can imagine pear on top of a cake, with spices for flavouring, would work very well indeed. I think next time I use pear that will be the direction I go! I'll look up your recipe...thanks for the top Johanna.

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  2. looks like you'll be celebrating with delicious foods! those muffins are just so pretty! :)

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  3. Aww, I hate that you didn't like the flavor...:( Food looks yummy though!
    I hope you had a great day!

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    1. Thanks Brandi! I guess not liking the flavour gives me something to work on for next time :P

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  4. oh gossshhh I'm about to burst b/c I'm so full right now, but all of your amazing looking desserts are making my mouth water~haha, I'm not kidding. I hope you have a beautiful rest of the day, and happy day! :D
    PS:
    I've baked with pear before and I have to say that it's a rather tricky little fruit to work with! Mainly b/c of its mild taste, and whatever you put it in, the other ingredients have to somehow BRING OUT that pear flavor--which isn't necessarily easy in my opinion. Perhaps somehow out there has a great tip for that!

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    1. Teehee, I hope you've recovered from your Mother's Day meal :)

      Thanks for your advice on pear too, I am getting the sense that it is far more challenging than I ever new!

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  5. well i can only go on how they look and i have to say they LOOK amazing, and raspberries are one of my top fruity picks. keep experimenting and i'm sure u'll perfect a recipe that does make ur taste buds light up...sadly i am of no use with tips. :P glad u had a wonderful mother's day!

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    1. Thanks Cait - I love raspberries too and at least they never give me problems!

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  6. I've used those liners before and I do not like them. As well as affecting the timing, I feel like I can taste them or something.

    Re: pear, it really is quite different to apple. I always feel it needs much more spice and it is more watery, so yes I'm sure it could use more texture. The only times I've used it successfully in baking is when it has been caramlised first like my upside down cake.

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    1. That's very interesting - those liners are now being removed from my baking repertoire! An example of appearance not being the only thing one should consider :P

      Your pear successes match up with others which leads me to think I need to modify my approach. An upside down cake with spice sounds like it would be much better than these muffins!

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  7. Pears are one of my least favourite fruits, perhaps from growing up eating poached pairs all the time for dessert (in white wine, in red wine, in cranberry juice, in cinnamon syrup... eventually it all got old) so I probably won't be giving you my report on these ;) Yay for lovely mums!

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    1. And there I am having never had a poached pear in my life! I think that might have put me off too, if it had happened.

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  8. Hmmm, I would be interested to give these a go and see what needs tweaking. They look lovely though Kari.
    I'd actually book marked a pear and ginger cake to make at sometime, so I'm wondering how that will taste too.

    Looks like your mum had a lovely day :-)

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    1. Thanks Brydie - somehow pear and ginger sounds like it would work where these didn't, but then again I thought these would work originally too, so I may not be the best judge! I'll look forward to reading how you get on if you make it to the bookmark.

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  9. Pears aren't one of my favourite fruits so I've never felt compelled to cook with them. Your food all looks lovely in the first photo. Glad you had nice day with your family and I'm rather jealous that you were able to enjoy some nice weather. It's getting way too cold over here for my liking!

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    1. Thanks Mel - and yes, I have been noting your weather forecasts with a certain amount of amazement. So cold!

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  10. ^^^ I agree with Johanna. I have baked with pears by slicing them and placing them atop a cake - but never actually IN a cake before.

    Looks like there was a lovely array of treats at your meal however!

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    1. Thanks Lisa, these have been great tips. Pears are now being removed from any and all further baking efforts, unless they go on top of the product in question!

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  11. Sounds like a wonderful day
    These muffins look amazing! How unique to add in pear. :)

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  12. I've never used pears in muffins before, but I love this idea! And the rest of your spread sounds absolutely perfect :)

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    1. Thank you - I think I'm more taken with your bean-based cake than these pear concoctions but at least they were something new :)

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  13. I think I've only ever used pears in baking when the baking is tarts - so they don't really get incorporated the same as they would in batter. The muffins at least *look* good, even if they didn't live up to your exacting muffin standards ;)

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    1. Teehee, that is true - they won in appearance if not in taste. I imagine pears would work well in tarts, I'm getting all these good (better!) ideas of what to do with them in future.

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